Category: Inspiration

Holding onto clutter can make you feel overwhelmed, stressed and low in energy. If you feel guilty about the amount of ‘stuff’ you have, you are not alone. Many of us are victim of the Evil Clutter Fairy – whether it’s that impulse buy or something to cheer us up, we tend to hold onto everything “Just in case”, so it’s often fear that is holding us back.

If this is you, then are let us help you get started, we promise you’ll feel better for it!

Top 10 tips to De-clutter your Life

Set a Date – don’t procrastinate any longer – set a date to start and stick to it.

Get Help – roping in someone you know and trust to help you, will give you the motivation and confidence to be tough with your throwing out!

Small Steps – if you just cannot face a massive onslaught on your clutter, start with nice, easy bite size chunks of 15 minutes every day. And tackle one room at a time. I guarantee– little by little you will start to feel better as you see the light (and more space) at the end of the tunnel.

Be Systematic – keep on decluttering that room until it is fully cleared. Cupboards, drawers, wardrobes, under beds, on top of wardrobes etc. Don’t be tempted to start on another room.

Take Five – whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, start sorting through your “junk drawer” (every kitchen has one!). Do you really need all those plastic boxes with no lids, empty jars or recipes torn out from magazines?

One in, Two Out – for every new item brought into the home/office, two items must leave… no cheating though, throwing out a piece of paper and empty toilet roll does not count! This rule may even save you money too – yay!

The Clothes Hanger Rule – each time you wear an item move it to one side of the wardrobe, you’ll find you probably wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. After six months you will see what items you have never worn and can give them to charity or sell them on eBay.

Box it for Twelve Months – if you just cannot bear to throw certain items away as you may use it, fix it, need it etc. put all these items into a box, seal up it up and pop it in the loft… IF after 12 months you have not opened the box, donate the whole box to a charity shop (without opening it, as that would only tempt you again). I recently ditched curtains and bedding going back 20 years that were still boxed up from house moves!

List and Reflect – every time you feel the urge to buy the latest gadget, dress or yet another pair of shoes, write it on a list of ‘Things I want’ or take a picture. When at home, reflect on your decision and ask “Do I really need it?” If you don’t you’ve saved both space and money!

Be Honest – do you have a problem detaching emotions from items and blackmail yourself into keeping items that you have been given by your children or spent a lot of money on and have never used? Try this little trick: Do you REALLY a) Love it. b) Need it? If you honestly love it and will use it then you can keep it – otherwise ditch it or donate it!

So those were my top tips. I guarantee if you free up the space, take the plunge, get tough and declare war on your junk that you will feel less stressed, more organised and really appreciate what you do have!

If you need a deep clean, before you tackle your decluttering or after the end of a tenancy let Mrs Mopp and her merry Moppettes® clean, sparkle and refresh your home, from top to bottom, allowing you to spend your well-deserved time off and weekends with friends and family. Contact us for a quote.

De-clutter Your Home In 2015

It’s the beginning of a brand new year and everyone is full of resolutions and hope for the upcoming 12 months. As well as promising to lose weight or join a gym, I’d like you to promise one thing to your home for the next year…To de-clutter it. All of it.

We all lead crazy busy lives and lives that are filled with convenience and “stuff”. Lots of stuff. We are a nation of work hard, spend hard people and our houses are full to busting point of things we do not wear or use.

Couple of interesting facts for y’all – Did you know that the average UK adult has over £1,000 worth of stuff/clutter that they could sell or donate just lying around their home? Also, did you know that many psychologists believe having an overcrowded and cluttered house can lead to depression, anxiety and even weight gain? Things that make you go hmm right?

Now I understand that you may not want to throw away that stripy bat-winged jumper that you looked good in when you were 17, just in case, one day, it should make a miraculous return to the catwalks of the world. However, sometimes we just have to face facts and be hard on ourselves and admit that we would never (ever) wear that jumper again anyway, even if the great Anna Wintour herself declared it chic. The thing is, the memories you have of being a footloose and fancy free bat-winged-jumper-wearing-individual are not trapped in a jumper and they won’t erase if we got rid of the jumper.

This is were de-cluttering becomes hard, we have to separate the emotions from all the stuff…

5 Tips To Make de-Cluttering Easier

1. Make a plan. Tackle your house room by room.

Don’t try and do your house in a day or in one weekend as, unless you live in a tiny house, you won’t manage it and that will just make you feel fed up and discouraged to carry on. Instead of throwing yourself aimlessly at your home, be strategic and make a plan of what you will do and on what days. You have a year to get everything straight so don’t panic. Just think about it for a second – it took yeeeeaaaaars to collect all the stuff you have right? It will take a while to sort out and get rid of. Rome was not built in a day…

2. Start with the “lived in” areas first

Start in your lounge, for example, and then work through your home from the most used rooms to the least. As you start to de-clutter the most used spaces of your home you should start to begin to feel and see the benefits of less clutter almost immediately. Your room will look bigger and brighter AND it will now take less time to tidy and keep clean, hurrah!

3. Get a 3 box system going in your home

Have 3 boxes or large bags with you when you de-clutter each room to keep you focused and working to a system. The boxes are i) Skip/Recycle ii) Keep/Relocate iii) Charity/Sell. As you go around the room place objects into one of the three boxes. Once done, the room will be ready to be cleaned and the ‘kept’ items put back. If you have the space in a utility or garage, try to keep a regular 2 box system for skip/recycle items and for charity items and make sure everyone in your home knows about and uses them.

4. Find a charity close to your heart

To give is always better than to receive and if it is possible for you to do so, please think about having a regular charity box in your home. A charity that means something to you will give you motivation to keep the de-cluttering effort going. If you have good quality items or clothing, find a a charity that moves you and one you that you would love to help and be involved in. Not everyone has time to volunteer or has the money to set up a charity monthly direct debit, so donating your un-wanted items is the next best thing and very much appreciated by the charities. Donating to your chosen charity is a win-win for everyone involved – Your home gets de-cluttered, the charity makes money for their cause and someone goes home happy with a new stripy bat-winged jumper. Yay!

The Mrs Mopp charity of choice for 2015 for clothes, household items and furniture is the Shropshire Community Project – If you live in the local area, please click the link after you’ve finished reading this post (Obvs), to learn more about them and the very wonderful work they do in our County. Thank you.

5. Hold a Clothes Swapping Party

Get all your chums to sort out their wardrobes, shoes and accessories, that they no longer wear and arrange a get together to swap with each other whilst holding your own private fashion show. A good giggle, you get to see your friends in one space and everyone goes home with something new and exciting to wear without even spending a penny!

Do you have any tips for de-cluttering and learning how to let go of things you no longer need or use? Please share them below if you do, we would love to hear them.

Love Cleaning Tips?

Here at Mrs Mopp, not only do we clean houses to the highest standards, we also like to try out and test cleaning tips and advice we find on blogs, to see what works. You can catch our regular cleaning tips by searching online for the hashtag #CleaningTips or you can check out our pages on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram which have daily cleaning tips and other cleaning wonderful-ness.

Please see below for a collection of our latest cleaning tips, designed to help save you time and money in your home.

Want that “just cleaned” smell to last a while longer when cleaning your home? Try this cleaning tip of swapping polish for air freshehener

Want to motivate the kids into cleaning up their room? Easy! Turn it into a game…

Not getting as much steam from your iron as you would like? Try this quick and easy cleaning tip to de-clog your iron.

It ain’t easy being cheesy… Try cold water instead of warm when dealing with cleaning cheese from pans and utensils.

Smelly bin, smelly bin, what are they feeding you? Never let your bin tell a tale on what you’ve been eating, by using this cheap, easy, cleaning tip.

Brighten up your kitchen sink and leave it smelling fresh and clean by trying this eco friendly cleaning tip

Are your elbows aching from all the grease you are putting into scrubbing pans? Save your arm ache with this handy cleaning tip

Is your shower a mere dribble of its former self? No worries, we can help. Wrap your shower head in a sealed sandwich bag, filled with white vinegar. Leave overnight and hey presto, Niagara Falls people.

Are stickers a pet peeve? Want a handy cleaning tip solution? Try a wee drop of WD40 to banish those pesky sticks

Want an environmentally friendly way to clean your windows? Want a fresh smell through out your home? Try this cleaning tip to sparkle and freshen windows

We hope you have enjoyed the first instalment of Mrs Mopp Cleaning Tips. Please check back regularly for more cleaning tips or check us out on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for daily #CleaningTips